Plymouth Guildhall, sometime in 1973.

Street lights on Royal Parade were rattling, buzzing and flickering in time with the bass.

200 yards away.

Town & Country Club, London, in about 1987 on the Children of God tour was way more deafening than anything I've been at before or since. It was so painfully loud that a number of people were physically sick.

Weirdly, the problem seemed to be worse upstairs on the balcony, the further you got from the PA. The bass frequencies were such that the volume seemed to travel up from the floor and affect peoples' stomachs. I didn't throw up, but I remember feeling pretty nauseous.

At the Whitgift School 6th form disco, 1980. So ear-splitting were they, they virtually cleared Big School. I saw MBV last week and they were nothing on the Bernie Tormé Band.

Seeringly, unbearably painful. It was quite loud too.

MBV are very loud (I was at the Roundhouse on Monday) but they should form an orderly queue with Motorhead, PRMLSCRM and – so I'm told – Uriah Heep.

The Evening Standard reviewer nailed it, comparing the experience to eating a curry so hot you can't taste it.

at B'ham Odeon,early 80s, perhaps not unrelated to vicinity of bass output from Mr Burnel.
Pardon?

Not sure about Lemmy and the boys but what sets MBV aprt form the rest is that the fianles last 30 mins and totally willfully loud still not sure it's good thing,funny or pretencious.

Saw MBV in Manchester on Saturday and my ears are still ringing this morning. The encore of You Made Me Realise contained 25 minutes of white noise - not particuarly enjoyable but rather thrilling all the same. One of them things you should try once for the sheer experience.

Tiny venue and, as you might expect, totally shambolic in an exhilarating 'anything-might-happen' sort of way. Anyway from the start it was eardrum shreddingly loud. Then about half way through without any preamble Slash sauntered on to the stage, and everything got even louder - certainly way past 11 - for an instrumental version of 'Paradise City'. I seem to remember that he stayed on stage for a few songs but I may have blacked out at some point. Still not convinced it wasn't some sort of CIA sponsored test run for Abu Ghraib.

Not a very surprising story this, I suppose, but certainly the loudest sustained noise I've ever endured.

Occured at Brixton Academy some time on the late '90's. Of a certain age, I'd never had the chance to see these noisemakers at their Ace of Spades height in the early '80's. So to tick them off a My-Name-Is-Earl type list I went along to see them to say I finally had. Within 20 minutes it felt as though my whole skull had been stuffed with cotton wool. Oddly at this point I started hearing the sounds behind the sounds, if you follow. I was sure I could hear the sound of Lemmy's pick scraping against the windings of his bass strings cutting through the fudge that was apparently filling my ears. Weird,in a I'm not doing that again kinda way.

I wondered why no one was cheering as a rather superlative set ended in yer actual welter of feedback. The I realised it was so loud I couldn't even hear myself clap. Next few days were an exercise in 'You what?', 'Sorry?' and 'Pardon?'
Honourable mention to Spiritualized at Royal Festival Hall where the combination of feedback and strobes in the final song had my long-suffering missus (TM) unsure whether to cover her eyes or ears.

4AD indie types The Pale Saints - who seem to have got swept away when people rushed to dismiss shoegazing - weren't just one of the better bands I have ever seen, but oddly enough the filling-loosening loudest. Unlikely candidates, particularly as they were the support to The Primitives, but by HECK what a sound.

Never seen them myself but a story from the late 70's.

A Uni mate of mine went to see Blue Oyster Cult supported by the 'head in London, at the Rainbow or somewhere like that.

When asked if it had been loud he responded in the affirmative but also noted that there was a guy who had stood at the back, near the sound desk, and bellowed "fuck off Lemmy" throughout their set, and could be heard up at the front. Now thats a set of lungs, albeit attached to what must, all these years later, be some well shredded vocal cords.